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ARTICLE BELOW (from www.writerblocks.com)

When we send our $40 to the Library of Congress to protect our music, our lyrics, our creations, and we get the confirmation letter back with the seal on it from Mary Beth Peters confirming that our work is now registered and copyright protected, we think…”my work is safe now, no one can take it, or I’ll sue the pants off them,” right? What about people who can afford to steal, or infringe the copyrights because they can afford to pay for the costs and settlement fees after their album is put out and its just really no big deal, they have a hit and the rest is history?


For example, Kanye West and Jay-Z are among to regulars who get sued for copyright infringement for using various samples (example: the Diamonds by Kanye West and Justify My Thug by Jay-Z resulted in lawsuits for uncleared samples).


The fact is, some people can afford to infringe copyrights. Is it becoming a trend of take it now, pay for the damage later? What’s a little $50,000 lawsuit to a millionaire anyway? Maybe it’s a new way of forcing people to give the artists rights to use it. Would Bridgeport Music have approved of Jay-Z using samples if he would have asked? Could you picture Shirley Bassey’s crew giving Kanye approval to use her work in a hip-hop track? Is it more of a violation if you use the work after you have been told “no” or is more of violation to play dumb and then pay for the costs?



By Traycee Lynn

I've always thought that as well. The fines should be much, much larger to deter the copyright infringement. I think the legal departments of record labels are put in a position to have these samples cleared as quickly as possible. But the labels are in such a rush to put out a product to sell that they release the product anyway in lieu of sample clearance.